Do these BAU boys know what retirement means?
by V.Johnes
Summary: This story is set between episode 07x10 and 07x11, it's completely AU, in the end of 07x10 Elle came back to the BAU, she got to lead her own team. The story was inspired by episode 01x15 Unfinished Business when Max Ryan comes back to the BAU and Morgan answers to Elle's question "That's retirement?" with "The BAU style."
**Criminal Minds 07x10-07x11 ~Do these BAU boys know what retirement means? ~**

 **A/N: This story is set between episode 07x10 and 07x11, it's completely AU, in the end of 07x10 Elle came back to the BAU, she got to lead her own team. Her team contains of Gideon, Ashley, Clyde Easter and Alex Blake. The story was inspired by episode 01x15 Unfinished Business when Max Ryan comes back to the BAU and Morgan answers to Elle's question "That's retirement?" with "The BAU style."**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything!**

 _~Do these BAU boys know what retirement means? ~_

When the BAU started there were three of them, the first was named Max Ryan he was the first who believed that they could stop serial killers if they studied their behavior. He was the first to leave and the first to come back. The second was named David Rossi, he was former marine, but at the same time the snarkiest and funniest person you'll meet, everyone thought he'll die in the BAU; he was the second to leave and the second to come back. The last that joined and build the BAU was named Jason Gideon, he was the one who was keeping the burden of the horrors they watched, he carried the burden for all the three of them. Everyone thought that he was going to be the first to leave and first to come back, mainly because he liked the pain, he was addicted to the burden. He was the last to leave and the last to come back.

When Max left it was because he had enough, he had enough of seeing the worst of humanity and frankly he needed an out, so when he was offered a teaching position in the academy he took it, he was getting older and being on the field would endanger the whole team, his team, which he never confined enough, or probably trusted enough to let them have his back. He also said to himself that he'll probably get to see his family more, he knew that was a lie, his brother and sisters all had lives of their own, with children and grandchildren in his brother's case. They didn't have time for their too haunted brother. And then there was his daughter, 28 now, he hasn't seen her since she was 15 hasn't talked to her since she was 18 , after ten years he was the last person she wanted to talk to. So he got the job, taught in the academy for the next ten years and left the bureau for good. He wrote a book about his nemesis, the killer that haunted him, and another before that for the "art" of profiling.

He came back after his ghost from the past haunted his second book's presentation. Of course he would, it was book about him… His friend Jason was there, they both saw the letter and Jason (bless him) suggested that Max should come back to the BAU to help them solve the case. He came back because he had to, he had to find who he was, whose face the ghost had…

And he did, of course he did. Jason was right; _his_ team was some of the best. They solved the crime, found the killer, finally light kicked out the ghost (this one, and just for a while).

After the end of the case he was offered an administrative job in the BAU, he wouldn't be in the field, maybe only a couple times (he wasn't dead after all) mostly his job would be consultations and lectures, maybe some teaching too. He thought about it for days, three to be exact and the thought of leaving behind Jason, the only family he had left was excruciating. So he stayed.

He left because he had enough, he came back because he had to, he stayed because it was who he was.

When Dave left it was because all the failures of the Bureau started weighting on his shoulders. He said it was because he wanted to write books (full time and not just between cases), he said it was because he didn't want to end up a lonely and bitter guy. He said a lot of things… one day he packed his office (the small crumpled thing barely deserved to be called an office) left his favorite paperweight on Jason's desk (a beautiful blue and green glass paperweight he picked up from a Vintage shop in Indiana while there for a case because it reminded him of his grumpy friend), his black leather fountain pen on Katie's desk (he remembers her saying that she collects pens, although this one probably costs more than her whole collection) and his Armillary Sphere on Hotch's desk (he was always starring at the bronze stupid thing every time he was in his office) and left. He thought he'll never look back, and for almost ten years he didn't. He never once stepped foot in Quantico. He met with Hotch for dinner and sometimes drinks in their favorite restaurants and bars. Spoke with Jason on the phone and sometimes met in their cabins (although not often because they would fight about who would cook) and sent a letter or two to Katie. He hadn't seen Max since _he_ left the BAU.

He came back when the guilt overwhelmed him. Jason, his friend has had enough and the BAU was a man down. He owned it to the three kids that lost their parents in a brutal way to at least try and find their killer, give them some closure. He saw Max briefly, they had a lot of issues to work through and very little time, they once best friends now barely sharing a drink. Jason fell of the grid and although he was back, he was alone. But probably the main reason why he came back was the one he never acknowledged, he came back because away from the BAU he _had_ became a lonely, bitter and cold guy. He came back because it was the only family he had left.

After the case was solved and justice had been served he was faced with a choice, either to leave again, enjoy retirement for good or stay. He looked down to the bullpen where the rest of the team was sitting and he realized that he thought of them as Spencer, Derek, Emily, Jen and Penelope, not Reid, Morgan, Prentiss, Jareau and Garcia. He smiled and sat back down on his chair. Looking around he realized the irony, his office (this one surely deserved to be called office) was the same Jason occupied before him. Once again he and his pal Grumpy J as he was calling him shared an office. He found closure of sorts and a family… so he stayed.

He left because of the bureau's failures, he came back because he had to, he stayed because it was his home.

When Jason left he was a broken man, his collage sweetheart, the woman he loved, lost, found and lost again (for good this time) was gone, as if losing his wife, his sweet Margaret wasn't enough ('well ex-wife moron!' His brain corrected him) Sara was brutally murdered in his apartment by a sadistic psychopath with some sort of grunge against him. He didn't say goodbye to anyone, couldn't, not really. He knew that if he faced them he would probably change his mind and stay, but then what? Then he would truly lose his mind and he'll make a mistake and people will die. He said the truth to Spencer (wrote it) wrote him that he doesn't understand any of it anymore. As lame and cowardly as it might sound it's true. He doesn't understand why any of these things happened. Why Sara had to be brutally murdered? Why Frank had to kill Rebecca? Why Elle had to get shot? Why Spencer had to be kidnapped and tortured by a deranged person? Why Hotch had to be suspended for something unavoidable? Why Erin Strauss was on a war path with them? He couldn't understand a thing, so he left.

He came back because he was asked to. Elle had the offer from Director Fickler to lead her own team. Founds were being redistributed and the BAU got a good deal. They managed to establish another Alpha team. So when she asked him to come back, he asked her if she wouldn't mind working with her husband. She laughed and told him she wouldn't ask if she had a problem.

After the first couple cases, Gideon thought that maybe coming back was a mistake. That maybe he shouldn't have come back, him and Elle had a good life, they spent time together, had fun, had left the monsters behind them. That's when he saw Emily Prentiss (well Prentiss-Hotchner now) coming into the bullpen, pushing a stroller. She smiled at him, softly; he tells her that if she's looking for Hotch she'll have to wait. "Strauss?" she asks and he nods. Her laugh bounces off on the walls as if the whole room is empty, it's warm, it's happy, light, it's everything he needed right now. He walks closer to the stroller and sees the face of the barely five months old baby girl lying there. She was sleeping peacefully, completely unaware of the evil of the world, not knowing that all around her death residences. "Wanna hold her?" Prentiss asks, he freezes for a moment, him holding a baby? No… defiantly not. But then his hands are moving to pick up the little girl and he places her comfortably in his arms and as she slightly turns and buries her head on his forearm he decides to stay…stay and fight for them… for his family.

He left because he couldn't understand anything anymore, he came back because he was asked to, he stayed because they were his family.

 **A/N: Here, it is. I hope you liked it. As always let me know what you think**

 **Till next time, Bye!**


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